Decades later, Brooklyn has its own pro team

After decades without a professional sports team, New York City's borough of Brooklyn hit the major leagues again with the opening of basketball team the Nets' new arena.

NEW YORK: After decades without a professional sports team, New York City's borough of Brooklyn hit the major leagues again on Friday with the opening of basketball team the Nets' new arena. The state-of-the-art, 18,000-seat arena will be officially christened on Sept. 28 with a rap concert by Nets co-owner and native Brooklynite Jay-Z.

Supporters cheered Friday as the lights were turned on during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Developer Bruce Ratner said he was glad the arena is finally open after its completion was delayed by multiple lawsuits and by the economic downturn, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the project has created more than 1,500 jobs.

The austere-looking arena has all black seats and metal hanging lights. The polished wooden floor has a herringbone design with the Nets' new black and white logo in the middle.

Just as the Dodgers' departure was a harbinger of difficult times ahead, the opening of the Barclays Center is a symbol of Brooklyn's astonishing rise in recent years as a sought-after destination for people from all over the globe.

Basketball is now the sport du jour here, not baseball. And in a stroke of irony, the new stadium was built directly across the street from the spot where Dodgers President Walter O'Malley wanted to erect a new ballpark to replace Ebbets Field, the team's home that was later demolished.

"When they left, that's when I washed my hands of baseball," said 72-year-old Fred Wilken, who was so distraught by the loss of his hometown team that he stopped watching sports altogether. "For years we supported them, we came down here. And then all of a sudden they decide to leave."

The Dodgers were the golden thread that tied Brooklyn together in those days. The fabric of the team was woven into the neighborhood.

About two miles (three kilometers) from the new Nets' Arena, the hallowed ground where Ebbets Field once stood is now a massive brick apartment building in a neighborhood of Caribbean immigrants.

"We still haven't gotten over it," admitted Ron Schweiger, Brooklyn's official borough historian, whose basement is stuffed with Dodgers memorabilia. "I tend to think they never moved. They're on an extended road trip."

Why O'Malley moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the 1957 season was, at its core, a question of dollars and cents. O'Malley wanted the city to help subsidize the new stadium, and the city refused. Fast-forward to the present: the $1 billion Barclays Center has received millions in public money.